Thanks for the feedback. I was sitting at my kitchen table when I heard the birds call out and scatter in every direction. I was able to take pictures through my kitchen window of the hawk as he narrowed in on his prey. One of the cardinals hit the window and landed underneath the deck furniture.

Red tailed Hawk.

The landing of the bird near you is a bit of a concern. It shouldn't be doing this, although immatures sometimes have this inattention to external threats. This sort of thing is most often seen in hawks that have been kept illegally in captivity for a while, then released. They learn that humans aren't a real threat to them, so they hang around. In the worst cases, these birds have learned that humans provide food, so they think some food might be forthcoming. Under no circumstances ever place out any meat for this hawk. It needs to learn -- as it will sooner or later -- that it should stay away from humans. It also needs to learn to stay away from your aviary and bird feeder, too. But it's winter, and live, warm food is right there in full view, if not in full vulnerability. For a young hawk trying to make it through its first winter, this will prove to be an insurmountable attraction. The hawk may hang around all winter. But when the days start getting noticeably longer in March, it will respond to ramping migratory urges and head north. It would seem that as more and more of us buy and create rural homesites (as I did), red-tailed hawk populations ought to be threatened or declining from a lack of available habitat. But for this species (and for Cooper's hawks, too), this isn't the case. There are more red-tails alive today than probably at any other time. In presettlement times, red-tails lived only on the open edges of the primal forest (in the East). As the Eastern and Midwestern forests were openned and converted to farmland, the red-tail population expanded. Red-tails can't live in an unbroken forest. They require open land. But until the last ten or twenty years, red-tails were commonly shot or trapped in many rural areas, suppressing their populations. No longer. Very few are shot any more, and very few are trapped. The greatest problem immature red-tails have is finding an open, unoccupied nesting territory. There are now so many adult, breeding red-tails that immatures rising to adulthood frequently can't find any open habitat in which to mate (form a pair bond), build a nest, and raise young. In short, there is a housing shortage out there for red-tails. There are large numbers of experienced adults who have saturated the countryside. Your bird is not guarenteed of ever becoming a parent. For this winter, though, it's having a glorious time watching your caged animals. The hawk is only an adolescent. In a year or so, it will grow up and attempt to attend to adult matters.

I agree. Cooper's. I get one of these in my backyard all the time takin down pigeons..few weeks ago he got a blue jay. Always leaves me nice feathery messes, lol. But SO awesome to watch. First time I saw him make a kill I was totally amazed. Knocked that poor lil pigeon right outta the air into my driveway. He ripped it apart right there with his wings all spread out protecting his kill before he took it in a tree. You managed to take some really nice pix..I haven't been able to do that yet, but I keep trying!